[FM22] Matryoshka

[_Ben_]

(Mid) June 2032

Big changes!

I'm making the biggest change to my youth development since coming here to Russia and I was to post about this more as a thinking out loud or even a checking off exercise really, rather than share any hidden tips and tricks.

When taking over, I set myself to control the training for the u18 team, for no real reason other than they were the youngest age group. I set things going and saw them play just 20 odd friendlies a season as they're not in a playable league. Why I didn't change that earlier, I don't know. However, the best players, such as Grulev here, would play for the B-Team anyway. So, it's made me think...

Given that they have good facilities:

And they also play at a playable level, the PFL - Group 4 (I managed in Group 1 at Mashuk and Anji).

I figured that by promoting my best, and most promising, younger players to this level, I'll be giving them both high quality training - at individual level and team level - that I can as well as adult game time. Yes, I know there are arguments for the benefits of training over matches below 18, but these players, see Grulev again, are good enough for this level. I currently have four standout prospects, below, that would form the core of this new (by new, I mean cared about) team, with the full squad (at present) looking strong, too:

---

Now, currently, I have no staff at Ural-2 but plenty of staff working for my U18 team. I am able to offer them contracts and I really like the wording here, that this is a 'promotion,' which feels really realistic. Furthermore, some of my First Team staff are then able to participate in training, meaning that there is even more quality working with them and I'm able to run the overall training as I would with the first team and did with the u18 team. 

---

To make this work, I've altered the responsibilities and am looking forward to moving on the staff and identifying any other young players that could step into this squad. It then also takes out that loan element, particularly at a younger age and if those players aren't able to make the step up to the second tier.

 

 

[Novem9]

13 часов назад, _Ben_ сказал:

I'd be happy to watch a documentary from Yekaterinburg! Certainly more so than Sunderland...

Why?  All documentary are important I guess

There is video with English subs from Youtube. Russian blogger (ex-professional player) travelled with Anji young team from Mahachkala to Moscow by bus
This is crazy, time is wasted over vast distances, there is no time to train

(I'm not sure but looks like I didn't share yet. Sorry if I'm repeating myself)

Edited February 10, 2022 by Novem9

[_Ben_]

8 hours ago, Novem9 said:

Why?  All documentary are important I guess

Not sure if it made it to Russian Netflix but there was a documentary released in the first major COVID lockdown charting the (supposed) rise for Sunderland under their new ownership. It turned into an absolute car crash and was a really difficult watch knowing what was about to happen to them!

[_Ben_]

(Mid) June 2032

Just some admin stuff that'll get lost in the ether if I don't post about it. Stuff that is important to my save but not like ground breaking...

This revised TV offer is understandable - we didn't get much last year as nobody wanted to watch a newly promoted team, expected to struggle, play. This, added to the injection from the board as well as the huge amount of tax paid this years leaves our profits looking stronger and our projection, below, looking stronger:

Even though the board want mid-table, I'm aiming for Europe (oh yeah, we've dropped in the rankings and no longer have direct access to the Champions League) so there will be some money to come in next year, at least. This means that, by wanting to stay in the black, I could spend up to about £5m on transfer outlay and extra wage costs. I don't think I will be, but there is, at least, that cushion should I absolutely find the right target.

---

Elsewhere, I've had my biggest international call up list to date and Palma has, in fact, made his senior Russian debut:

 

[john1]

Damn you Krylya Sovetov  

[Sonic Youth]

12 hours ago, john1 said:

Damn you Krylya Sovetov  

Last season’s cup winners?

I’d say the blame for European spots is down to Zenit and the Moscow teams underwhelming achievements in Europe 

[_Ben_]

9 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Last season’s cup winners?

I’d say the blame for European spots is down to Zenit and the Moscow teams underwhelming achievements in Europe 

Blame Zenit! You can't earn £98m a year in sponsorship, have six players earning more than £100k p/w and only achieve this:

[_Ben_]

(Early) July 2032

I'm obsessed with the finances at the moment!

After allowing Ponce to move on, we were able to further reduce our wage bill by seeing expiration in wage contributions:

I sold Anvarov when I first took over as he was unhappy following our relegation but I figured that the £675 p/w was a much lower cost than he was getting at the club and wasn't going to get first team football anyway. Mulahusejnovic was not sold by me (so we've been paying this for more than two years now) and is really not a good piece of business as this is nearly 33% of the wage I spend on my top earner.

That being said, these little amendments to budgets and player sales are having a profound impact on our projections, below.

These little deals give me that flexibility to offer another £2k p/w to a player - yes it's only £96k p/a more but that's a lot when you've not got millions to fall back on, increase the scouting budget a little (especially now since we've somehow added 30,000 players since I added Argentina, removed the Belarus second tier, Belgium and Serbia - which is a little off!) or just throw that little bit more at that key member of staff.

My original intentions of European competition money faded as we didn't qualify, faded even more as we saw our TV revenue last year but have now picked up with offloading players and staff from the budget and signing a new deal. Maybe there'll be some transfer movement after all...

[Sonic Youth]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Blame Zenit! You can't earn £98m a year in sponsorship, have six players earning more than £100k p/w and only achieve this:

Wow that’s bad, and now have a chance to get worse with no direct qualifying into the group stages of the European competitions. Quickly qualifying and start changing this Ben! I believe your next transfer window will move you forward, even if you only bring in a player or two.

[Sonic Youth]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

(Early) July 2032

I'm obsessed with the finances at the moment!

After allowing Ponce to move on, we were able to further reduce our wage bill by seeing expiration in wage contributions:

I sold Anvarov when I first took over as he was unhappy following our relegation but I figured that the £675 p/w was a much lower cost than he was getting at the club and wasn't going to get first team football anyway. Mulahusejnovic was not sold by me (so we've been paying this for more than two years now) and is really not a good piece of business as this is nearly 33% of the wage I spend on my top earner.

That being said, these little amendments to budgets and player sales are having a profound impact on our projections, below.

These little deals give me that flexibility to offer another £2k p/w to a player - yes it's only £96k p/a more but that's a lot when you've not got millions to fall back on, increase the scouting budget a little (especially now since we've somehow added 30,000 players since I added Argentina, removed the Belarus second tier, Belgium and Serbia - which is a little off!) or just throw that little bit more at that key member of staff.

My original intentions of European competition money faded as we didn't qualify, faded even more as we saw our TV revenue last year but have now picked up with offloading players and staff from the budget and signing a new deal. Maybe there'll be some transfer movement after all...

Nice work moving on Ponce.

It’s those types of wage details added into transfers that need to be carefully considered, as too many of them can really cripple a clubs finances. It might get rid of a player, but it lingers. It’s like paying instalments for transfers, need to watch how many pile up on each other.

Was that your whole database set-up your using when you showed the addition of Argentina?

[Novem9]

В 11.02.2022 в 20:24, _Ben_ сказал:

Blame Zenit! You can't earn £98m a year in sponsorship, have six players earning more than £100k p/w and only achieve this:

This is stupid foreign limit for 8 players. This is happening now IRL. Some Russian clubs richer than Portuguese, French (PSG behind brackets) and Dutch, but foreign limit is blocking transfer potential. Supporters want to take it out, as do many owners and functionaries, but there will always be a bunch of idiots who will pursue this for their own benefit or just because they idiots. The league has dropped a lot in quality with this limit in the last 10 years. It's hard to imagine that in the 2000s CSKA and Zenit won UEFA Cup

Edited February 12, 2022 by Novem9

[_Ben_]

19 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Nice work moving on Ponce.

It’s those types of wage details added into transfers that need to be carefully considered, as too many of them can really cripple a clubs finances. It might get rid of a player, but it lingers. It’s like paying instalments for transfers, need to watch how many pile up on each other.

It's never easy selling on players who've made a good impact but Ponce has degraded significantly of late...

As for the game. It's really weird...he was the Game Status back in May:

Some leagues have gone yet 30,000 players added!

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, Novem9 said:

This is stupid foreign limit for 8 players. This is happening now IRL. Some Russian clubs richer than Portuguese, French (PSG behind brackets) and Dutch, but foreign limit is blocking transfer potential. Supporters want to take it out, as do many owners and functionaries, but there will always be a bunch of idiots who will pursue this for their own benefit or just because they idiots. The league has dropped a lot in quality with this limit in the last 10 years. It's hard to imagine that in the 2000s CSKA and Zenit won UEFA Cup

As a youth developer, I certainly don't mind these limits but I do see how they're going to hold back the growth of the league. You just have to look at the wages paid compared to the quality of the players:

He's not fully scouted, but surely Suslov isn't worth that much!

[Sonic Youth]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

It's never easy selling on players who've made a good impact but Ponce has degraded significantly of late...

As for the game. It's really weird...he was the Game Status back in May:

Some leagues have gone yet 30,000 players added!

The star ratings fell from 5 to 2 as well.

I’m guessing Spain and Ukraine are also part of that set-up?

Edited February 12, 2022 by Sonic Youth
S+U

[_Ben_]

6 minutes ago, Sonic Youth said:

The star ratings fell from 5 to 2 as well.

I’m guessing Spain and Ukraine are also part of that set-up?

Yes - they're just further down. I'll see what happens next time I roll past the reset date. It shouldn't be an issue as I'm not playing for speed any more but I've got my eye on it!

[john1]

Are you removing Serbia and Belgium leagues?

[Shrewnaldo]

There have been a few bugs with the add/remove leagues feature, which is a shame as I think it's one of the best features in the game. I saw one guy who tried to add leagues to his game but the game kept adding them and then instantly removing them. I wonder if you're having something similar here? It seems really bizarre to have that number of players be randomly added into the game

[_Ben_]

(Mid) July 2032

Not much to go through here, just some statistical work and a few pre-season friendlies, but still enough to share. It's taken me a long time to completely define these but I've now pretty much settled on three KPIs for each position within my team. You can see that they're largely based on our style of play - interceptions and progressive, defence splitting passes (calculated through key passes).

I've then taken a leaf from @Shrewnaldo's book and started using this to rate and source replacements for these players. You can see, given the coloured dot, that I'm happy with the first team but some backups are poor. I've also identified those who may need replacing due to age and expiring contracts. 

Not shown on here are the two new deals for Ricardo Palma and Anton Petrenko, two key players within my team. This, obviously, has a knock on effect on our projections, but we're still able to use that money saved on Ponce and the other wage contributions to pay for the extensions to key players.

I have used the metrics gathered above to help my find a replacement right back. Again, by focusing on Interceptions and Key Passes, along with an extra focus on Tackling (as this backup right back will often be used when we need to defend our lead), I'm able to search directly for these metrics. It's a silly time to search as we've just progressed into the new season but, actually, the use of a minimum number of minutes takes us back to Brazil, whereby I can make use of a teammate who shares the same language as Keffel Sampaio.

I was able to identify these three players:

Klivanly is a really good option here at Serie B Cruzeiro but sadly, signed a new deal a day or so after I sent my scouts out to watch him. Neither of the other two are appropriate (the Bragantino man, Azevedo is a left back, for example) but it's a start.

I furthered my use of these metrics to find Nathan, an extremely safe option at right back.  With 1.83 key passes/90, he's outperforming the three above him and, given that he's at Internacional and we've just progressed through their relatively easy State League, his interceptions are only at 1.83 per/90 with a 90% pass completion. These are the kind of metrics that I need to watch out for. I'd have missed this player simply because he hasn't had to defend a lot. It's the same thing that @Shrewnaldo has been exploring with % of goals scored by players in weak teams. So I exported his full dataset into Excel:

This is comparing him to all defenders in top leagues in South America. He's not only good with those key passes - he's in the 99th percentile of all players (interested in joining or not) as well as leading in Crosses and Assists. He's not the most aggressive, and, as I said, this is fine, but maybe a little surprising given the strength of their State League but that's not why he'd be joining.

My scouts are now out in full force as I want to build a comprehensive highlight package of him and analyse the finer details of his game. First glance is that his attributes are well rounded and he looks solid enough to back up these stats, so let's see!

---

From one Brazilian to another...

It may not have come off, but this kind of ball from Keffel is exactly the kind of thing that I want to see from him and I'm sure he'll record some assists this season if he continues:

[_Ben_]

12 minutes ago, john1 said:

Are you removing Serbia and Belgium leagues?

Yes, they've gone now!

6 minutes ago, Shrewnaldo said:

There have been a few bugs with the add/remove leagues feature, which is a shame as I think it's one of the best features in the game. I saw one guy who tried to add leagues to his game but the game kept adding them and then instantly removing them. I wonder if you're having something similar here? It seems really bizarre to have that number of players be randomly added into the game

Had this last year! Apparently, if you didn't add one, then confirm, then add another, it'd fail to load them! 

I can't even really work out where the extra lump of players has come from but, as I said, I'm just monitoring game performance for now.

[john1]

13 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Yes, they've gone now!

 

Any particular reasons why?

[_Ben_]

3 minutes ago, john1 said:

Any particular reasons why?

I wanted to have the top ten leagues active, so that's why I added Belgium but I don't have the best laptop so switched it out for Brazil/Argentina as my scouting ideology grew. Didn't feel like I was getting anything after some decent scouting missions in Serbia. Those cheap wonderkids seem to be drawn West and not North East! Ukraine and Belarus remain as the two geographically similar nations that I've got loaded.

[Shrewnaldo]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

My scouts are now out in full force as I want to build a comprehensive highlight package of him and analyse the finer details of his game.

Do you ever watch the actual "highlights package" that is linked on the Report page of their profile?

[danielgear]

11 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Do you ever watch the actual "highlights package" that is linked on the Report page of their profile?

And if you do what allowances do you make if the player is playing a different role to what you are planning to use him in or his team a different formation? 

[_Ben_]

11 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Do you ever watch the actual "highlights package" that is linked on the Report page of their profile?

2 minutes ago, danielgear said:

And if you do what allowances do you make if the player is playing a different role to what you are planning to use him in or his team a different formation? 

I have dabbled, yes. Will do more for Nathan and try and post about my thoughts.

When I went to watch Keffel Sampaio's highlights, I saw that he was playing as a DLP as opposed to a WP, where I want him to play. I just looked at how he picked the ball up and moved it on, really. It's a tough one because I watch lots of football and I'm able to get an eye test of a player from this and I know FM is a mechanical game but I still find myself looking to see if he's comfortable on the ball. It's also made more difficult because you don't know what is behind the scenes - is he a DLP(d) or a DLP(s)? Are the team playing with an Ultra Aggressive mentality or a really Defensive one? These things are easier to read in a game on the TV than in FM but they all impact how he'd make a pass or who he'd even look for with said pass.

I definitely think there is merit to it but just want to find out exactly what else I can get from it that I can't get from pure statistical analysis - because, right now, Nathan is the best right back on the continent for the things I need but surely that's not true! 

[danielgear]

10 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

I have dabbled, yes. Will do more for Nathan and try and post about my thoughts.

When I went to watch Keffel Sampaio's highlights, I saw that he was playing as a DLP as opposed to a WP, where I want him to play. I just looked at how he picked the ball up and moved it on, really. It's a tough one because I watch lots of football and I'm able to get an eye test of a player from this and I know FM is a mechanical game but I still find myself looking to see if he's comfortable on the ball. It's also made more difficult because you don't know what is behind the scenes - is he a DLP(d) or a DLP(s)? Are the team playing with an Ultra Aggressive mentality or a really Defensive one? These things are easier to read in a game on the TV than in FM but they all impact how he'd make a pass or who he'd even look for with said pass.

I definitely think there is merit to it but just want to find out exactly what else I can get from it that I can't get from pure statistical analysis - because, right now, Nathan is the best right back on the continent for the things I need but surely that's not true! 

I’d have to agree, I’ll find certain players who’s stats look good but maybe the attributes don’t line up with certain things for example a winger with a low crossing attribute but stats tell me he creates a lot of chances so I’ll watch the highlights package and if my eyes tell me that he’s fine at crossing and the attribute isn’t a worry I won’t let it influence me. Certainly prefer this route when playing attributeless like I did on FM19. 

[_Ben_]

(Mid) July 2032

Still not got to league fixtures yet so I'm deliberating some more things...

One thing I've learnt with this new statistical, in depth, recruiting approach is to not pull the trigger too early when identifying a player, especially if there is other interest. We made a £160k offer for Nathan and it was accepted before I'd fully scouted him. That, of course, alerted Avai, who then made a bid themselves. This means I've either got to use the 'Delay confirmation' or just hope that I'm not undervaluing a gem and not offering him a contract befitting of his ability. I started looking a bit more of the finances of this deal, especially compared to Ezequiel Ponce, who has pretty much gone from hero to cash drain before I managed to offload him!

With those projections in mind and wanting to run a really steady ship, I want to ensure that these deals are feasible for the club. However, it certainly looks like they are:

The above graphic shows what I believe the Wage Contribution tab would show if Nathan signed the deal I've offered (which is somehow worked out from a combination of weekly wage and bonuses) to calculate his total cost to me over the first year of his deal, as I've offered him a 2-year deal. That is then compared with the one year that Ponce had left on his deal and you can see that I could be getting a statistically top full back, who fills a gap within my team for less money than I was paying my third choice striker who hadn't scored at all in the previous season. 

As I said - I will now try to conduct a pretty thorough observation from him from the highlights package when it arrives. However, I'm conscious that he may have already made a decision before I'm fully able to do this!

---

All of this recruitment and statistical analysis has kind of overshadowed the growth in three academy players since I took over here at Ural:

Babushkin and Petrenko were thrust into the first team after our relegation as I felt that it was a no lose scenario for them, given our expectations as the best team in the league. Both of them have been absolutely wonderful on the training pitch and during games. Prutov started in the youth squad, enjoyed some first team football and a successful loan before returning and being a really good 18 year old. Given the nod to the youth side, and since I've taken over training of the 2 side to help develop my players, I feel it's important to share my ideology with them. I will use a training calendar that runs very similarly to our first team - the periodisation is there and we focus attacking for home games and defending for away games. I'd micromanage this better if I had the time to analyse the level of opposition at that level, but this will do. Also, and different from U18 training, is a bigger focus on Match Prep. After all, these kids are playing in an adult competitive league, that is fully modelled in game. Therefore, good performances (as well as training) will only elevate their performances in terms of attribute growth.

But back to these three...

Below is their attribute growth between June 2030 and July 2032, just 25 months.

Babushkin:

Petrenko:

Prutov:

This has come from a steady mix of first team football, specific rotation of individual foci around their role training (if they have one) and, of course, discussion around performances - which has clearly impacted Determination and Work Rate in some.

Add these to the likes of Matveev, Stolbikov and Grulov, who are all younger, and we have the makings of an academy that, surprisingly, is churning out some of the best Russian talent!

[Shrewnaldo]

33 minutes ago, danielgear said:

And if you do what allowances do you make if the player is playing a different role to what you are planning to use him in or his team a different formation? 

 

27 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

I have dabbled, yes. Will do more for Nathan and try and post about my thoughts.

When I went to watch Keffel Sampaio's highlights, I saw that he was playing as a DLP as opposed to a WP, where I want him to play. I just looked at how he picked the ball up and moved it on, really. It's a tough one because I watch lots of football and I'm able to get an eye test of a player from this and I know FM is a mechanical game but I still find myself looking to see if he's comfortable on the ball. It's also made more difficult because you don't know what is behind the scenes - is he a DLP(d) or a DLP(s)? Are the team playing with an Ultra Aggressive mentality or a really Defensive one? These things are easier to read in a game on the TV than in FM but they all impact how he'd make a pass or who he'd even look for with said pass.

I definitely think there is merit to it but just want to find out exactly what else I can get from it that I can't get from pure statistical analysis - because, right now, Nathan is the best right back on the continent for the things I need but surely that's not true! 

 

13 minutes ago, danielgear said:

I’d have to agree, I’ll find certain players who’s stats look good but maybe the attributes don’t line up with certain things for example a winger with a low crossing attribute but stats tell me he creates a lot of chances so I’ll watch the highlights package and if my eyes tell me that he’s fine at crossing and the attribute isn’t a worry I won’t let it influence me. Certainly prefer this route when playing attributeless like I did on FM19. 

A lot of this chimes with me. I asked primarily because I find that "highlights package" in the Report tab to be a bit useless. But at least you can go and watch the analysis from the game itself and then select the actions that you want to compare.

Re @_Ben_'s point on how "comfortable" a player looks on the ball, I always look for the speed with which players conduct their actions in FM. It's just a thing I've long thought but I feel like you can tell immediately from kick-off whether a team is better than you or not by the speed with which they knock the ball around, find options or close down. Regardless of the instructions, this seems to be FM's way of differentiating between high and low quality. I think the same with players. If a player receives the ball and very quickly moves into the active part of their action, then that's a pretty good indicator to me that he's better than those around him.

[john1]

Insane progress with Prutov  

[_Ben_]

July 2032

With new kits and new expectations, we march on into our tricky second season. Having upset the applecart somewhat last year, yet not being overly active in the transfer market, I'm not going to make too many predictions, too soon.

Five points from a possible nine is a decent start, as is being unbeaten, but we're just not quite clicking yet. You don't expect much from Moscow teams or Zenit and, although I was lucky last year to pick up some points sporadically. To measure the impact I'm going to be calculating this as I go on. I'm currently at +1 point more than expected against these teams.

We started slowly against Lokomotiv but still maintained a good control of the game, not letting Lomokotiv get going. They scored, utterly against the run of play but I was sympathetic at the break. Agbalaev netted a wonderful free-kick early in the second half but that seemingly took the wind from our sails, as the match momentum shows. A late push with some fresh legs wasn't enough but a point, against a team from Moscow, is nothing to moan about.

Next up was a victory but very poor performance against Krylya. We started by allowing them a free run at goal with some poor defensive organisation, failing to spot and move the runners on. It's a basic of defending that, when you shuffle over, you hand on your man and Usov here just hasn't alerted right back Branovets of what's happening. Granted, the Belarussian isn't a natural right back (and Palma was on Olympic duty), so he'll be less comfortable at decision making, but this is a unified defensive side that shouldn't be doing this. Things got even worse when Petrenko missed this golden opportunity and we decided to not mark Hezze, who brought them level with the easiest of finish - so much so that the man on the post just watched it go past him. But, we then again - we took our chances, largely against the run of play, despite largely isolating our striker. It's the wins one days like this that show the level that the team could perform at.

I had the luxury of pretty much swapping out my entire backline for the Ufa (one of four newly promoted teams - so surely 24 points becomes a target for these games) game. We conceded from the only shot they had, a freekick from Player of the Match Ogunniyi. Again, things just didn't quite click - this ball from Romanov is exactly what I want from my midfield, but the timing of the run from Budunov just was not. A point is a point and we remain unbeaten, but, even in the fledgling league table, we're not in the position I quite wanted to be.

---

I did it!

£160k with bonuses that take him to, roughly, a £4,500 contribution per week at a cost of just shy of £400k this year. Scouts reported that he would adapt quickly and loved big games. Nathan has a potentially difficult personality, as I know so little, and is the wrong side of 30 but comes in after clearly excelling in the areas I want. I watched him, as a left wing back, against Junior in one of his last appearances for Internacional and, as @Shrewnaldoalluded to - he was quick on the ball, made good decisions and passed the ball on crisply. He had a couple of pot shots which went into row Z but his offensive passing was really something, completing five key passes from his 54 in total with a further two interceptions and 0.10xG of his own.

With another Brazilian, I hope they'll help each other settle but I'll be taking his introduction into the first team relatively slowly.

This, truly, is the longest and most complete transfer deal I think that I have ever completed! It feels great that he wasn't just found by chance or wasn't just plucked from the free transfer list - not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with that but it's not the avenue I'm trying to explore with recruitment right now.

[Shrewnaldo]

38 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

 It feels great that he wasn't just found by chance or wasn't just plucked from the free transfer list - not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with that but it's not the avenue I'm trying to explore with recruitment right now.

100% this. Will feel even better when it pays off.

And I know it's not ideal that he's 30 but that's still 2 seasons minimum (I can't recall his Natural Fitness). By that time, Prutov will surely be first team material? Loving it.

[_Ben_]

1 minute ago, Shrewnaldo said:

100% this. Will feel even better when it pays off.

And I know it's not ideal that he's 30 but that's still 2 seasons minimum (I can't recall his Natural Fitness). By that time, Prutov will surely be first team material? Loving it.

His Natural Fitness is 14 so he's not likely to fall off a cliff, plus, the role he plays in isn't really one where he's bombing forward anyway. Prutov is my left back but is making great progress and Palma, the man ahead of Nathan, has just signed a contract extension, essentially locking down that role for a good while. We're in good shape in backups like this can perform in line with how their stats have been in the past.

[Shrewnaldo]

Ah oops, I thought Protov was one of those that were coming, hadn't realised he was already in the team. Must pay more attention!

[Sonic Youth]

These offseasons in Russia gives you lots of time to address what needs to be considered. Makes for some interesting posts when you write your thoughts down 

Nathan is an interesting player, who can fill in for a good period of time in your squad. Hopefully a youth player comes your way or progresses enough to be included in the first team by that time.

Training your youth players like your first team can only make Ural stronger!

Edited February 14, 2022 by Sonic Youth
Ural

[SixPointer]

Great to see Nathan arrive especially after your extensive work in discovery and doing due diligence to back up your initial findings. 

Superb attribute growth on the kids and other attributes will have grown not only the ones that declare that they have improved. Usually ones with green arrows slightly off being full have grown at least one if you check on Them. 

[_Ben_]

August 2032

Four league games here and we're now sitting at +7 points ahead of expected when facing Moscow and St. Petersburg sides. However, our 24 point target against newly promoted teams cannot be attained as we lost away at Amkar. However, it's been a really strong month for us, overall.

We kicked off the month with a fantastic victory over Dinamo Moscow. It's one of those victories that I feel I can attribute to some sensible tactical decision - particularly taken after their goal, which came from an easy ball to their unmarked Mezzala. With both of my own central midfielders playing as aggressive Mezzalas themselves, I needed a different option. I decided to pull WP Sampaio in to man mark him, which impacted his heat map but worked really well, as seen by his defensive statistics:

However, that's a short term fix as we're still vulnerable to these long ball through the middle, as seen on our goals conceded data. Despite going 1-0 down, we roared back and played some lovely football, scoring twice and really should have added more - if Petrenko had found the net from here. I've said all along that I expect nothing from these Moscow teams right now but maybe, just maybe, this is changing - we certainly were good value for our victory!

It is games like the Amkar game that show we're not quite ready to be serious challengers yet. How we can come off the back of a really strong performance and end up looking so toothless and naïve, I do not know. Defensively, we were great, but, going forward, we offered very little and our accrued xG largely came from pot-shots and dead balls.

It was kind of an opposite performance against another newly promoted team, in Baltika. Whilst we were certainly better going forward, we were also very open at the back. Fortunately, most of their shots came with a low xG but it was certainly a worry how easily they got into our final third. However, a return to winning ways is certainly a bonus.

Spartak came to town to end the month and we annihilated them. We quickly sped into a lead and could have extended it further if Petrenko hadn't missed another golden opportunity. He currently has four goals (joint fourth in the league) from 5.28xG (top of the league) so just needs to make sure that he's finishing all of these big chances as we progress. A good proportion of their total xG came from a penalty that Branovets conceded - but, thanks to the double jeopardy law, only saw yellow for a horrific professional foul with their attacker through on goal. He did make amends with a well taken goal from a corner though.

---

Still early in the season but we're in a really strong place here. I'd expect Zenit and CSKA to overtake us with their game in hand but we've already opened a cushion up over Krasnodar and Spartak (9th), which sets us in good stead for the remaining 23 games of the season.

 

[SixPointer]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

August 2032

Four league games here and we're now sitting at +7 points ahead of expected when facing Moscow and St. Petersburg sides. However, our 24 point target against newly promoted teams cannot be attained as we lost away at Amkar. However, it's been a really strong month for us, overall.

We kicked off the month with a fantastic victory over Dinamo Moscow. It's one of those victories that I feel I can attribute to some sensible tactical decision - particularly taken after their goal, which came from an easy ball to their unmarked Mezzala. With both of my own central midfielders playing as aggressive Mezzalas themselves, I needed a different option. I decided to pull WP Sampaio in to man mark him, which impacted his heat map but worked really well, as seen by his defensive statistics:

However, that's a short term fix as we're still vulnerable to these long ball through the middle, as seen on our goals conceded data. Despite going 1-0 down, we roared back and played some lovely football, scoring twice and really should have added more - if Petrenko had found the net from here. I've said all along that I expect nothing from these Moscow teams right now but maybe, just maybe, this is changing - we certainly were good value for our victory!

It is games like the Amkar game that show we're not quite ready to be serious challengers yet. How we can come off the back of a really strong performance and end up looking so toothless and naïve, I do not know. Defensively, we were great, but, going forward, we offered very little and our accrued xG largely came from pot-shots and dead balls.

It was kind of an opposite performance against another newly promoted team, in Baltika. Whilst we were certainly better going forward, we were also very open at the back. Fortunately, most of their shots came with a low xG but it was certainly a worry how easily they got into our final third. However, a return to winning ways is certainly a bonus.

Spartak came to town to end the month and we annihilated them. We quickly sped into a lead and could have extended it further if Petrenko hadn't missed another golden opportunity. He currently has four goals (joint fourth in the league) from 5.28xG (top of the league) so just needs to make sure that he's finishing all of these big chances as we progress. A good proportion of their total xG came from a penalty that Branovets conceded - but, thanks to the double jeopardy law, only saw yellow for a horrific professional foul with their attacker through on goal. He did make amends with a well taken goal from a corner though.

---

Still early in the season but we're in a really strong place here. I'd expect Zenit and CSKA to overtake us with their game in hand but we've already opened a cushion up over Krasnodar and Spartak (9th), which sets us in good stead for the remaining 23 games of the season.

 

“Don’t expect much from Moscow” here have six points 

Two great home wins against the capital sides and a sore one to take against Amkar still a great start. I like the WP doing a man man marking job it’s one of my go too’s when coming up against a real threat, who doesn’t love a good old man marking job.

Are you still using IWB’s? I thought they would counter those direct balls. Mines often pick up those paces and plug the gaps nicely. 

[Hootieleece]

Man marking works! I usually man mark any playmakers in the mid field and the Striker as well as zonal marking and pressing other positions by OI's. It works really well, but you need suitable players.

I like goals, but almost enjoy a clean sheet or satisfying win after a tactical tweak more.

KUTGW!

 

[SteinkelssonFM]

38 minutes ago, Hootieleece said:

Man marking works

I second that, I have both my wingers marking the opponent's wing backs and I feel that has really helped to improve my defensive stability.

You've made a good start to this campaign, as you have said, hopefully Petrenko can improve his conversion rate on some of his big chances. 

 

 

[SixPointer]

7 hours ago, MattyLewis11 said:

I second that, I have both my wingers marking the opponent's wing backs and I feel that has really helped to improve my defensive stability.

 

 

 

I often deploy this strategy especially when I know teams have very adventurous wing backs. Use support duties to mark them but use attacking mezzala to exploit the half space gap they make from over committing. (Adding play down flanks can really hammer home the advantage)

PI man mark specific player >PI mark tighter >OI mark tighter same player makes the player stick to him like glue. 

[Novem9]

16 часов назад, Hootieleece сказал:

Man marking works! I usually man mark any playmakers in the mid field and the Striker as well as zonal marking and pressing other positions by OI's. It works really well, but you need suitable players.

I like goals, but almost enjoy a clean sheet or satisfying win after a tactical tweak more.

KUTGW!

 

+1, its productive and very funny to mark key players in opposite teams  I like to watch passing analysis for opposite playmakers after game, if blocking was good, many backwards and sideways passing, rarely forward from them.

[_Ben_]

@SixPointer, @Hootieleece, @MattyLewis11 and @Novem9 - thanks for the continued comments and well wishings!

20 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Are you still using IWB’s? I thought they would counter those direct balls. Mines often pick up those paces and plug the gaps nicely. 

I do, yes. But here I think Dinamo were particularly clever. They were using using WTF(a) or W(a) as both their wingers had pre-occupied my full backs early on, so much so that I'd switched them back to IWB(d), given the quality of our opponents. I'm still trying to understand how to achieve that perfect balance between a strong tactical shape and those tactical tweaks!

[_Ben_]

Deadline Day (September) 2032

Not had the chance to partake in one of these before, so I thought I'd give it a go. Relatively happy with the squad I have but there are some players who I've got detailed reports on that could become moves should outgoings happen...

Neither of those incomings are players who I have ever heard of or even have an interest in but the interest in Vostrikov is real. With 15 hours left, the potential £5m it could bring us is all well and good but that's way more than the amount I've been searching for players costing. So I'm going to jump the gun as I did with Keffel Sampaio:

I'm going to bring in Silvio Luiz on loan from Santos. He's not going to cost anything in wages and I have an optional £220k purchase fee if I want it. His current buyout for foreign clubs sits at £180k but, should he develop well, I expect a new contract may be signed and we'd otherwise lose out on what could potentially be a bargain. He's not perfect: very one-footed, not the best of personalities and currently cannot play as a central midfielder, where I'd want to potentially replace Vostrikov. However, he's having a really strong season at youth level, recording good statistics for a forward and he even netted twice in the u20 Liberdatores final. He's been watched across the majority of the youth campaign and I like his direct running and dribbling as well as his eye for goal. Given how offensive my Mezzalas are (see here for the heat map and touches in the win over Baltika), I feel that a purely attacking player, with absolutely no defensive ability, will be fine for this role and that Dribbling and Finishing ability will be useful here - in fact, it's only the Passing from the highlighted attributes that really stands out as an area to develop.

For £0 total cost between now and June in case Vostrikov moves on and as a useful backup to Petrenko and Budunov, this move feels like a safe one. I've seen him play, statistically, he's a good finisher for his age and he'll slot into a social group with at least two other Brazilian's, easing his move to the Ural mountains. Also - we all know the pedigree of Santos' strikers...

DONE!

---

Little side note - I love this screen. Sadly, because I've only recently added these South American leagues, the players have no history and no accurate statistics so I'm just trying to ignore all of these wonderful deals that have not be concluded through statistical analysis, or at least statistical identification!

---

This is pretty significant. Amirkhan is a good player but wants a new deal on upwards of £20k p/w. He came in for a no fee last summer and was pretty good. I would, based on his contract demands being unlikely to drop, be happy to sell him. Is Prutov good enough to take over? More than likely, yes. Do I have the required squad depth to not need to recruit? I don't think so. I've negotiated a deal that might work for us:

• The £900k up front can cover any recruitment for now
• Three sums of £500k will just top up the bank balance over the next year
• The sign a replacement means that, quite simply if I cannot find who I want, he doesn't move.

To replace him, I went Brazilian again...

Emerson Luiz joins for his release clause from Chape and is a like for like replacement, allowing me to confirm the Agbalaev departure. He's a player who got some rave reviews from the scouting team and the analysts liked the three (annoyances of adding leagues so late!) professional games he's played as well as the 13 at youth level. I've watched some of the highlights package and and liked how he broke the play up and moved the ball on. He was playing entirely as a DM rather than an LB and that's something I also considered when making this move. Pair that with him being on the slow side and not the tallest and it was only really his price and his DNA match (Fir - 16, Dec - 14, Det - 16, Wor - 15, Nat - 16) that did it for me. However, my hands were somewhat tied with the CSKA offer, considering our money issues, and, therefore, I think I've done pretty well here.

---

Despite pretty strong interest in Babushkin (Union Berlin), Vostrikov (Stuttgart), Budunov (CSKA) and Prutov (Milan and Stuttgart), I've managed to avoid any bids and have held on to a pretty strong first team:

Next recruitment jobs are to look at the expiring contracts of Borodin, Sobirjonov and Budunov. Matveev, at nearly 17, is knocking on the door and is a perfect left-footed replacement for Borodin whilst the development and end asking price (depending on where we finish this season) will impact whether Sampaio is signed and, as of right now, there's nothing long term in place for Budunov unless B-team striker Grulov has a great year.

That was fun!

[john1]

Absolutely wow, and first class post that was  Silvio Luiz, what a exciting young player and 220K as future fee for him is superb.

I felt, maybe you could have pushed for little  bit more for Agbalaev from CSKA Moscow.

[Sonic Youth]

Some neat transfers dealings there. With the signing of Silvio Luis, would you entertain bids for Raul Budunov? I like that feature included in the transfer of Agbalaev to CSKA about only if I can replace him you can have him.

You’ve got some decisions to make with those coming out of contract. If you did resign, would it be for only a one year extension? Then if you decided not to keep them, would that alter the squad’s homegrown numbers (can’t remember the rule)?

Finally, does CSKA want to become Ural?

[_Ben_]

18 hours ago, john1 said:

I felt, maybe you could have pushed for little  bit more for Agbalaev from CSKA Moscow.

I completely agree. It was my first negotiation and they straight up accepted, which tells me I should have gone higher. However, he was already pretty unhappy at his wage demands so I didn't want to further that, particularly with us in such good collective spirits right now.

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

With the signing of Silvio Luis, would you entertain bids for Raul Budunov?

With Vostrikov not going, it does certainly open a door for him to play at a striker, definitely. I'll see how he gets on. Budunov, sadly, just isn't quite good enough for this level.

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

would that alter the squad’s homegrown numbers (can’t remember the rule)?

Eight foreign players and four training before 21st birthday, which I meet, with ease. The academy is certainly assisting with that part.

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Finally, does CSKA want to become Ural?

I have often lauded our youth intakes - but these are the second and third choice keepers that CSKA have, both of whom came through their academy:

  

They are both insane!

Now if we could get to that level...

[Sonic Youth]

16 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I have often lauded our youth intakes - but these are the second and third choice keepers that CSKA have, both of whom came through their academy:

  

They are both insane!

Now if we could get to that level...

They are pretty amazing, and look promising. Would be interesting to see their development in a couple of seasons. Wasn’t Akinfeev (sp?) at CSKA?

Curious about both their heights though.

Definitely something to aim to have through your youth facilities.

[Shrewnaldo]

Have you posted about the newgen facepack that you use, Ben? I can't remember if it's an automatic thing or something you need to do manually? 

[_Ben_]

5 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

They are pretty amazing, and look promising. Would be interesting to see their development in a couple of seasons. Wasn’t Akinfeev (sp?) at CSKA?

Curious about both their heights though.

Definitely something to aim to have through your youth facilities.

Yep. Igor Akinfeev played two more seasons at CSKA in game before retiring and becoming their manager. He's done well and is the longest serving manager in Russia right now. Howevever, with his contract up at the end of the season - I wonder whether they'll renew or not...

2 hours ago, Shrewnaldo said:

Have you posted about the newgen facepack that you use, Ben? I can't remember if it's an automatic thing or something you need to do manually? 

I think I have in the past! It's called NewGAN manager and I think I saw it on a Zealand video/Reddit thread last year. It's a hefty download as there's something like 80,000 AI generated faces. 

It's a simple process to do. You just need to have every newgen visible (it provides a filter for this) which can be done either via an unemployed manager or using the 'Show all players on search' when the editor is enabled and you CTRL+A (why I was so confident you can get more than 270 odd players) and print the list of newgens, with the specific view, to an RTF file. It's then selected as a root for this executable and it's a couple of minute process. You just need to clear the cache and reload the skin and you're off!

Would very much recommend!

 

[_Ben_]

September 2032

A very different style write up here...

I have COVID and it's absolutely knocked me for six. I thought it'd be a nice time to chill and play FM but I can't really concentrate nor type anything particularly coherent. This was a tough group of games not helped by my lack of concentration whilst watching them. Four points is about what I'd have expected from them and we're still in a really strong position.

I am really struggling to actually recall what happened in these games but it's just another reminder that Vostrikov is playing way beyond his ability and that the Mez(a) role is a wonderful one and would be even better if he was actually suited for what I want...

Above is the list of RPL midfielders who have met the following criteria:

• More than 1.00 dribbles/90
• More than 1.00 key passes/90
• More than 1.00 shots/90
• More than 500 minutes played

From such a small pool of data, I was able to really dig into the specifics of what I wanted to see. As I've said, many many times, the outputs of data from this game, whilst clearly developing, still have such a long way to go to be really useable.

So, I've got six players above and the first thing to note is that we have two players in the list - and Babushkin has historically performed well in these areas but his Olympic involvement means he hasn't played the prerequisite number of minutes. I'll kind of run through what each area shows me. In terms of team importance - Starkov's three goals have accounted to 50% of Baltika's total goals - meaning they clearly have an issue going forward, but that's to be expected for a newly promoted team. Vostrikov and Romanov total 36% of the team goals, meaning that 64% are coming from the other 9 positions; I'm happy with that. Now, Vostrikov is having the most shots, in fact, one quarter of all our shots are from him this season. Great. Except when you consider he's our weakest shooter pretty much in the entire forward thinking part of the team. This is really shown when you look at the goals/90. Whilst Torres plays as more of a traditional #10, in the whole between midfield and defence, he' scoring from 23% of his shots, over double what Vostrikov is and even more than Romanov is. Our 1.87xG/90 for the team is the third best in the league, with us also being the second best clear cut chances created - and, even though Vostrikov is just about outscoring his xG, this number could be much greater. It's also worth noting that he's taking a huge number of shots from pretty low xG places - meaning that his shot is only going to go in once in about eleven goes, the second worst on that list.

However, in terms of his creativity - he's the best and his goals + assists top that list too.  His overall offensive contribution is heavily weighed down by his shots/90 figure, whereas, with Torres, for example, his includes a lot more key passes, but he's a really decent creator, yet could be a better finisher, which is odd to say when he's finishing numbers, at a glance, look great.

---

Then, when you compare Vostrikov with someone like Luiz Silva, you can really see that he's actually not that good at these things that he's leading the league at! Whilst I never want to sell my best players, there is an argument here that, whilst Vostrikov is certainly good, if not great, right now, there's an opportunity to make this role even more deadly - especially if the reported £5m+ allowed for a good bit of recruitment.

Alternatively, could he be repurposed as a CM(a) or Mez(s) or even CM(s) - changing how I set up the winger on the right?

These are all things I need to consider over the course of the season!

 

[Sonic Youth]

3 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

September 2032

A very different style write up here...

I have COVID and it's absolutely knocked me for six. I thought it'd be a nice time to chill and play FM but I can't really concentrate nor type anything particularly coherent. This was a tough group of games not helped by my lack of concentration whilst watching them. Four points is about what I'd have expected from them and we're still in a really strong position.

I am really struggling to actually recall what happened in these games but it's just another reminder that Vostrikov is playing way beyond his ability and that the Mez(a) role is a wonderful one and would be even better if he was actually suited for what I want...

Above is the list of RPL midfielders who have met the following criteria:

• More than 1.00 dribbles/90
• More than 1.00 key passes/90
• More than 1.00 shots/90
• More than 500 minutes played

From such a small pool of data, I was able to really dig into the specifics of what I wanted to see. As I've said, many many times, the outputs of data from this game, whilst clearly developing, still have such a long way to go to be really useable.

So, I've got six players above and the first thing to note is that we have two players in the list - and Babushkin has historically performed well in these areas but his Olympic involvement means he hasn't played the prerequisite number of minutes. I'll kind of run through what each area shows me. In terms of team importance - Starkov's three goals have accounted to 50% of Baltika's total goals - meaning they clearly have an issue going forward, but that's to be expected for a newly promoted team. Vostrikov and Romanov total 36% of the team goals, meaning that 64% are coming from the other 9 positions; I'm happy with that. Now, Vostrikov is having the most shots, in fact, one quarter of all our shots are from him this season. Great. Except when you consider he's our weakest shooter pretty much in the entire forward thinking part of the team. This is really shown when you look at the goals/90. Whilst Torres plays as more of a traditional #10, in the whole between midfield and defence, he' scoring from 23% of his shots, over double what Vostrikov is and even more than Romanov is. Our 1.87xG/90 for the team is the third best in the league, with us also being the second best clear cut chances created - and, even though Vostrikov is just about outscoring his xG, this number could be much greater. It's also worth noting that he's taking a huge number of shots from pretty low xG places - meaning that his shot is only going to go in once in about eleven goes, the second worst on that list.

However, in terms of his creativity - he's the best and his goals + assists top that list too.  His overall offensive contribution is heavily weighed down by his shots/90 figure, whereas, with Torres, for example, his includes a lot more key passes, but he's a really decent creator, yet could be a better finisher, which is odd to say when he's finishing numbers, at a glance, look great.

---

Then, when you compare Vostrikov with someone like Luiz Silva, you can really see that he's actually not that good at these things that he's leading the league at! Whilst I never want to sell my best players, there is an argument here that, whilst Vostrikov is certainly good, if not great, right now, there's an opportunity to make this role even more deadly - especially if the reported £5m+ allowed for a good bit of recruitment.

Alternatively, could he be repurposed as a CM(a) or Mez(s) or even CM(s) - changing how I set up the winger on the right?

These are all things I need to consider over the course of the season!

 

A little bit of everything in this post, and some sock knocking off news! Commiserations and well wishes about a speedy recovery. It’s rough.

And back to impossibly unimportant other distractions, if you sold Vostrikov, would that mean needing two positions: forward and Mez? Does Vostrikov cause trouble at all? Maybe repositioning him is a better option, but will he perform as well there. Gah, it’s a position to decide and then committing to selling or keeping and following through.